Kim Chaek

Born in Sŏngjin, early years Kim joined the guerrilla war against the Japanese occupation in 1927 and fought alongside Kim Il-sung in Manchuria. He joined the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in 1932. He defected to the Soviet Union to escape the Japanese conquest of the partisans in 1940. He lived in Khabarovsk where he met with Kim Il-sung and formed the 88th Special Brigade. He returned to Korea along with the Soviet Army. He was appointed number 2 Committee Vice Chairman in the Korean Workers Party. Kim Chaek became industry minister and deputy prime minister under Kim Il-sung in 1948. In the Korean War, he was commander of the North Korean troops on the front lines.

Kim was purged when he was found responsible for the failure at the Inchon landing. He died in January 1951 after an American military air raid bombing. Some scholars believe that his death was an assassination after a power struggle, and caused by gas poisoning rather than an air strike.[2]

Bust at the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery

The Kim Chaek University of Technology in Otan-Kangan Street, Pyongyang

After his death, Kim Chaek's birthplace Haksong County, combined with the neighboring Songjin City, was formally renamed to Kim Chaek City to commemorate his life and accomplishments.[1] The Kim Chaek University of Technology, Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex, and Kim Chaek People's Stadium[3] are also named after him. The stadium is located at 40°41'0"N 129°11'47"E.

He was posthumously awarded North Korea's National Reunification Prize in 1998.[4]

• Song "Song of General Kim Il-sung" 《김일성장군의 노래》
• Feature-length epic "Mt. Paektu" 《장편 대서사시 백두산》

• Korea, a century of change by Jürgen Kleiner page 275
• Korea Web Weekly Remembering Kim Chaik
• Kim Jong Il Biography. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House for Literature, 2005.